Columbia University Human Rights Seminar: Land Speculation in Brazil: Human rights violations, displacement of rural communities and environmental destruction

Monday, December 2, 2019 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM

The Columbia University Human Rights Seminar Cordially invites you to attend the Seminar’s second meeting on Monday December 2nd, 2019.

This year, the Columbia University Human Rights Seminar is focusing on Whither Human Rights? Navigating through evolving configurations of governance, territoriality and normativity.

Our speaker is Maria Luisa Mendonça who will present on “Land Speculation in Brazil: Human rights violations, displacement of rural communities and environmental destruction”

Maria Luisa Mendonça holds a PhD in Human Geography from the Department of Philosophy, Literature and Social Sciences at University of São Paulo/Brazil (USP), and is currently a research scholar at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). Her research includes history and political economy of agriculture, food, land and water systems, and geopolitical processes of resistance by rural social movements in Brazil and internationally. Her recent book, Political Economy of Agribusiness (Annablume, Sāo Paulo, 2018) demonstrates the central role of the food system in international relations as a result of a dialectical movement of economic crisis and expansion in connection with critical areas such as trade agreements, financial markets, environmental justice, and transnational activism. Her current research project anticipated a trend in financial capital to “migrate” to farmland markets in the Global South, especially after the subprime crisis in the United States’ real estate market in 2008. This research on financial markets and land speculation includes building an international network of scholars and social movements throughout Latin America, North America and Europe. Mendonça is co-director of Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos (Network for Social Justice and Human Rights - www.social.org.br) in Brazil and the editor of the book “Human Rights in Brazil,” which has been published annually since 2000. She is a member of the Defend Democracy in Brazil Committee in New York.

The session will be chaired by George Andreopoulos, Co-Chair, Professor of Political Science, John Jay College & The Graduate Center, CUNY

Seminar: 561, Human Rights

Meeting Date: Monday, December 2nd 2019.

Meeting Time: 7:30 PM (Optional Dinner* at 6:30 PM)

Location: Faculty House, Columbia University. Please look for a bulletin board in the Faculty House lobby for the room number announcement.

Website: http://facultyhouse.columbia.edu

Directions: Enter campus through the gates at 116th and Broadway. Follow College Walk across Amsterdam Avenue towards Morningside Drive. After passing Jerome Greene Hall on the left, enter Wien courtyard through the gates. Follow courtyard around to the right. Faculty House will be the last building on the right.

Website: http://universityseminars.columbia.edu/resources/directions-to-faculty-h...